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Armenia's Governance System Has To Change

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  • Armenia's Governance System Has To Change

    ARMENIA'S GOVERNANCE SYSTEM HAS TO CHANGE

    By Suzanne Simonyan, Yerevan, 16 August 2013

    How to describe today's Armenia? An Armenian tourist would describe it
    as a complex of shining skyscrapers, fashionable hotels, cars (many
    Mercedes, BMW), high-end restaurants, cozy cafes and the indifferent
    people shuffling through Yerevan's centre.

    Yes, most of our brothers and sisters who come to Armenia for vacation
    admire this veneer and don't see the real Armenia. They mostly see
    only the centre of Yerevan, and some places of tourist interest not
    too far from the capital. Travel agencies never take visitors on
    tours which would show them the reality of Armenia. They don't take
    them to places where one can see the miserable life of the people,
    stooped by the burdens of a harsh life.

    Missing from the postcard are soldiers killed in the army at peacetime
    and their mourning mothers, the military doctor killed in broad
    daylight in the restaurant and his orphaned children, the suicides
    because people can't cope with a cruel reality anymore. The abandoned
    villages and towns, the unprotected and vulnerable senior citizens,
    the lacerated forests and mountains, mineral waste dumps, the ruined
    agriculture, the insecure life of the fearful, those in despair,
    the emigration, the crime statistics, the absence of justice and the
    rule of law...all are covered or erased.

    The above lack of security in our lives runs parallel to the
    cooperation of the new colonialists and the domestic criminal
    oligarchic system.

    Our society has traditionally believed that the state should dictate
    the lives of its citizens. For most Armenians the state is an invisible
    body, with supreme authority, to govern any way it wants. In fact,
    a state is just a mechanism through which people are guaranteed
    security and development. States are established and formed to serve
    their citizens and to give an adequate response to the challenges
    faced by its people.

    What's going on in our country? Does our state take care of its
    people? Has it established an honorable or respectable life for
    its citizens?

    The state should guarantee the security of its people, starting with
    military security, security of culture, financial-economic security,
    and security in foreign affairs, etc. But every day we witness how
    the fake balloons of those securities keep exploding around us.

    What are the conclusions to be drawn from this state of affairs? Of
    course, it's the absence of the state. Actually, we haven't had a
    state for a long time. The current state serves and protects only
    the oligarchic clans. It serves the elite and the foreign political
    power centres. And in response, those centres protect today's fake
    and subservient statesmen and politicians. This is the primitive
    mechanism through which the management of our country has been
    handed to the new colonialists. The management levers are no longer
    in Armenia. They are in the hands of the new colonialists who have
    become the decision-makers of our country.

    Worried with the above-mentioned, 33 citizens united and established
    a political-civil action group called Nakhakhorhrdaran. The group
    initiated new political process aimed at changing of the management
    system in Armenia.

    Nakhakhorhrdaran aims to establish a new system capable to set and
    to pursue national goals and tasks. We call on Republic of Armenia
    citizens and all Armenians living in the Diaspora to stand up for
    the human, national and state dignity, freedom and justice in our
    Homeland. We call on all Diaspora Armenians to participate in the
    necessary process with Armenians living in Motherland, because the
    current management system has created a crisis of moral-psychological,
    socio-economic and demographic character which is threatening the
    existence of our Motherland.

    The deepening crisis is reflected in the enforcement of the criminal
    oligarchic value system on society, by the social polarization
    incompatible with a vibrant social life, by the legal system which is
    a satellite of the political powers, by the predatory exploitation
    of natural resources, the destruction of the natural systems and
    biodiversity, by the pulverization of the cultural heritage, by
    Armenia's increasing dependence on foreign powers.

    Today's systemic crisis has caused widespread despair toward the
    future resulting in colossal emigration which threatens not only the
    statehood, but also the physical existence of the Armenians living
    in the Homeland.

    We believe it is possible to overcome the systemic crisis through
    radical reconsideration and through the transformation of the current
    political and management systems. In such a situation the mobilization
    of the capable forces of society and the support and mobilization
    of Diaspora Armenians is a must. We are in active struggle now,
    organizing demonstrations, public actions, etc. We are also working
    to establish an alternative court of justice. New Armenia's Strategic
    Concept, prepared by Nakhakhorhrdaran, shall start its hearings in
    September. Many Armenians from Diaspora visit our office in Armenia
    and take part in the discussions of the concept and our activities
    in general. Their suggestions are always taken into consideration.

    Dear Brothers and Sisters, it is high time to be active in these
    processes and to show that you are not indifferent to what is happening
    to Armenia, to our Motherland. The desire for change is well planted
    in the country, and many youth groups have stood up and made their
    demands for a just society. The Diaspora should take active part in
    these processes. The Diaspora should join the processes in any way
    they prefer. Diaspora should make its voice heard. Tomorrow might be
    too late.

    Suzanne Simonyan is the deputy coordinator of Nakhakhorhrdaran
    in Armenia.

    http://www.keghart.com/Simonyan-Governance

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